Health

What the book is about

Many acclaimed policies in Ireland have failed to deliver on their aspirations, leading some commentators to talk of a problem of implementation. The failure to fully implement some public service policies has led to frustrations on the part of policymakers, service providers and service users alike. All Vision but No Change? Determinants of Implementation: The Case of Ireland and Mental Health Policy reviews the implementation literature from a number of perspectives. There are those who seek to implement policy from the 'top down'. Others seek to influence the implementation of policy from the 'bottom up'. Some seek to bring about implementation through change.

The mental health policy A Vision for Change is taken as a case study. The content of reports of an Independent Monitoring Group is analysed. Interviews are undertaken with people associated with implementation of the policy. These include politicians, public servants, mental health professionals, mental health service users and mental health advocates.

The key finding is that two factors were found to be fundamental to successful implementation: (1) authoritative, accountable leadership; and (2) identifying and addressing the main resisters to change. Many other factors were found to be important to some extent.

All Vision but No Change? Determinants of Implementation: The Case of Ireland and Mental Health Policy concludes that there is a need to acknowledge issues 'below the surface', including beliefs, values and power relationships in implementing policies. Innovation and creativity, along with local leadership, are important but on their own they are not enough to ensure successful implementation. 

These findings have relevance for the implementation of nationally designed policies which are intended to be implemented across the country in an even-handed way.

Contents

  1. Introduction
    Rationale for the research
    Inititial insights from the Irish public service
    Empirical study
    Results
    Structure of the Book
     
  2. Implementation Concepts
    An introduction to the implementation and organisational change literature
    Definition of policy implementation
    A landmark study
    Top-down approach
    Bottom-up approach
    Synthesis approaches
    Summary of implementation approaches
    Transformative factors
    Inferences from the implementation literature
    Lines of enquiry put forward for investigation
    Common factors
    Application of lines of enquiry
     
  3. An Overview of Mental Health Policy in Ireland
    Why mental health poliy?
    The International context for mental health policy
    Implementation of A Vision for Change
     
  4. An Analysis of the Implementation of the  Mental Health Policy A Vision for Change
    Introduction
    Overview of documentary content analysis results
    Analysis of interview findings
    View of the policy A Vision for Change
    Views on the ‘Implementation’ section of the policy
    The actual implementation of the policy
    What was implemented well?
    What was not implemented well?
    What is needed to have a modern mental health system?
    Examples of policies which have been implemented well
    Summary of key findings
     
  5. A Discussion of the Determinants of Implementation
    Introduction
    Driving Policy implementation from the top down
    Influencing policy implementation from the bottom up
    Influencing policy implementation common factors
     
  6. Conclusions
    Introduction
    The relative importance of the key determinants of implementation
    Relevance to the implementation literature
    Limitations of the study and the potential for further research
    Final word


Appendix A: Study Methodology
Appendix B: Summary of the Research Proposal
Appendix C: Interview Schedule
Appendix D: Summary of Content Analysis Findings
Bibliography
Index

All Vision but No Change? Determinants of Implementation: The Case of Ireland and Mental Health Policy

What the book is about

Many acclaimed policies in Ireland have failed to deliver on their aspirations, leading some commentators to talk of a problem of implementation. The failure to fully implement some public service policies has led to frustrations on the part of policymakers, service providers and service users alike. All Vision but No Change? Determinants of Implementation: The Case of Ireland and Mental Health Policy reviews the implementation literature from a number of perspectives. There are those who seek to implement policy from the 'top down'. Others seek to influence the implementation of policy from the 'bottom up'. Some seek to bring about implementation through change.

The mental health policy A Vision for Change is taken as a case study. The content of reports of an Independent Monitoring Group is analysed. Interviews are undertaken with people associated with implementation of the policy. These include politicians, public servants, mental health professionals, mental health service users and mental health advocates.

The key finding is that two factors were found to be fundamental to successful implementation: (1) authoritative, accountable leadership; and (2) identifying and addressing the main resisters to change. Many other factors were found to be important to some extent.

All Vision but No Change? Determinants of Implementation: The Case of Ireland and Mental Health Policy concludes that there is a need to acknowledge issues 'below the surface', including beliefs, values and power relationships in implementing policies. Innovation and creativity, along with local leadership, are important but on their own they are not enough to ensure successful implementation. 

These findings have relevance for the implementation of nationally designed policies which are intended to be implemented across the country in an even-handed way.

Contents

  1. Introduction
    Rationale for the research
    Inititial insights from the Irish public service
    Empirical study
    Results
    Structure of the Book
     
  2. Implementation Concepts
    An introduction to the implementation and organisational change literature
    Definition of policy implementation
    A landmark study
    Top-down approach
    Bottom-up approach
    Synthesis approaches
    Summary of implementation approaches
    Transformative factors
    Inferences from the implementation literature
    Lines of enquiry put forward for investigation
    Common factors
    Application of lines of enquiry
     
  3. An Overview of Mental Health Policy in Ireland
    Why mental health poliy?
    The International context for mental health policy
    Implementation of A Vision for Change
     
  4. An Analysis of the Implementation of the  Mental Health Policy A Vision for Change
    Introduction
    Overview of documentary content analysis results
    Analysis of interview findings
    View of the policy A Vision for Change
    Views on the ‘Implementation’ section of the policy
    The actual implementation of the policy
    What was implemented well?
    What was not implemented well?
    What is needed to have a modern mental health system?
    Examples of policies which have been implemented well
    Summary of key findings
     
  5. A Discussion of the Determinants of Implementation
    Introduction
    Driving Policy implementation from the top down
    Influencing policy implementation from the bottom up
    Influencing policy implementation common factors
     
  6. Conclusions
    Introduction
    The relative importance of the key determinants of implementation
    Relevance to the implementation literature
    Limitations of the study and the potential for further research
    Final word


Appendix A: Study Methodology
Appendix B: Summary of the Research Proposal
Appendix C: Interview Schedule
Appendix D: Summary of Content Analysis Findings
Bibliography
Index

By: Helen Johnston
ISBN: 978-1-904541-50-9

Published: Thursday 09, January 2014.


€20.00

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